Menu

An American Birdcore undertaking

Charles Coulombe

We dedicate this entry to St. Blaise, martyr, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and patron of throat illnesses.

Greetings, and welcome to Dethrone Mammon.

My name is Ryan Gasaway, and I’ve started this blog as a first step in expanding my writing career. Since graduating from Vanderbilt University as a Mathematics and Philosophy double major in the spring of 2013, I’ve spent a lot of time posting on social media, particularly Twitter and Tumblr. Whereas I’ve learned a lot through my digital adventures with those services, I’ve realized more and more how a more traditional writing format can benefit me in the pursuit of my intellectual and artistic goals.

I’m foremost a musician, but after my old band broke up in late 2014 I was discouraged by the prospect of making a living making music—as John Lennon is reported to have observed, “show business is an extension of the Jewish [i.e., Talmudic, i.e., anti-Catholic] religion.” Around Thanksgiving of 2015, however, I found myself infused with a surge of energy compelling me to get back into it. I had been dealing with an indisposition of the throat that has since gotten a lot better, but I’m still waiting for it to get back to 100% before I really start singing again. It’s also kept me from working as much in my capacity as a mathematics and science tutor, so I figured writing would be a good way to pass the time that I’m not spending writing songs or practicing guitar while it heals, in addition to being a potential source of income.

On that note, I bring the reader’s attention to Charles Coulombe’s assessment of the spiritual state of affairs in the Puritan’s Empire from which I write:

One of the most exciting and positive notes of our history … is that the American continents have provided a place wherein native and European, African, and Asian cultures have mingled, and from which a vital spirit emerged. In those areas evangelized properly, the results have been extraordinary. Two models have been offered for this mingling: the Catholic, wherein the constituent elements retain their integrity while enriching one another, and the Americanist, wherein the ultimate result is intended to create a conformity based upon the lowest common denominator: money [bold mine].

As is plain to any present American resident, the Americanist scheme has proven indisputably victorious over the Catholic over the centuries in which said mingling has taken place. Such an attitude is in fact enshrined in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” In his article on the previously mentioned John Lennon, Br. Nathanael Kapner elucidates this point succinctly: “Competing ideologies must give way to one player in town: ‘Democracy,’ where power is awarded to the highest bidder.”

Superimpose this situation with the general Americanization of the planet, also covered in Kapner’s article, and we have a dilemma John Lennon ironically failed to anticipate with his pithy, maudlin ballad “Imagine”: namely, the conformity of increasingly intermingling countries to the Americanist model wherein the same avaricious unitarians he obliquely accuses of controlling the entertainment industry politically dominate a world with “no religion.”

That’s where Dethrone Mammon comes in. Although it’s easy to despair in the face of such a seemingly insurmountable political climate, my experience in the metapolitical deep end qualifies me to take down the beast that’s been bred in my own backyard. Although Americanism and its beneficiaries appear to be winning the struggle for world domination at the moment, there’s only one King of history, and he doesn’t take lightly to the egregious offenses against his sovereignty that an international, cryptic imposition of devotion to his adversary Mammon necessarily entail, especially when the members of the imposing party for the most part ought to know better. I make service to said King the utmost priority in my life, which puts me at a distinct and obvious metaphysical advantage over fools who think money is that from which authentic power is derived.

All this gets me thinking qualifiedly hopefully about Donald Trump, whose presidential campaign has rocked the American voting public over the last year. A brief perusal of the opening pages of his book Think Big and Kick Ass has me convinced that the Donald is by no means not a Mammon devotee, but that doesn’t stop me from hoping and praying for his repentance, especially not in light of the manly vitality he’s demonstrated in bucking the effeminate bipartisan establishment of mainstream American politics. In an amusing twist of fate, Trump’s lifelong devotion to Mammon has now afforded him the opportunity to do something virtuous with the wealth he’s accrued, which is to say, the man has so much money that he’s practically transcended money.

As per Sheldon Adelson’s calling the Republican frontrunner a “charming” candidate, however, I’m wary that the Trump Train may in fact amount to yet another false polarization staged by those same avaricious unitarians largely responsible for the impending wrath of the King of history. For this reason, Dethrone Mammon takes the approach of harnessing the Donald rather than merely riding out the wave of sensationalism his rise has spurred; the latter course of action may well end in disaster. Unlike certain other political figures who have seen an increase in popularity in these increasingly Weimarian days, Donald Trump is still alive. He still has a chance.